Every theme includes a background. The background can be plain white, a solid or gradient color fill, a texture or pattern fill, or a picture. When you change to a different theme, the background is replaced.

Background colors are defined by theme colors. Therefore, if you change the theme color scheme, PowerPoint updates the background to reflect the new theme colors.

If you like a particular theme with its color scheme and fonts, but you want a different background, you can quickly apply a different background to all slides or to a selection of one or more slides.

On the View menu, click Normal, and then in the navigation pane, click the slide or slides that you want to change.

On the Design tab, in Customize, click Format Background.

Click Fill, and then click the Solid, Gradient, Picture or Texture, or Pattern option.

Choose the background fills that you want.

Note: To later remove custom backgrounds and apply the default background for the theme to all slides, click the Solid fill option in Format Background. On the Theme Colors pop-up menu, click Automatic, and then click Apply All.

In the navigation pane, click the slide or slides that you want to change.

How to select slides in the navigation pane

On the View menu, click Normal.

In the top of the navigation pane, click the Slides
tab, and then click a slide. To select multiple slides, hold down
as you click the slides. Depending on the width of the navigation pane, you will either see the
and
named tabs or the Slides
and Outline
icon tabs.

On the Themes tab, under Theme Options, click Background.

On the pop-up menu, click Format Background.

In the sidebar, click Fill, and then click the Solid, Gradient, Picture or Texture, or Pattern tab.

Choose the background fills that you want.

Note: To later remove custom backgrounds and apply the default background for the theme to all slides, click the Solid tab. On the Color pop-up menu, click Automatic, and then click Apply All.